Palliative Care, Ageing and Spirituality

Elizabeth MacKinlay is a registered nurse and an Anglican priest. She is Director of the Centre for Ageing and Pastoral Studies at St Mark's National Theological Centre, Canberra, Australia, and a Professor in the School of Theology at Charles Sturt University, Australia. She was Chair of the ACT Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing 2002-2008 and was the ACT Senior Australian of the Year for 2009. Elizabeth is the editor of Ageing and Spirituality across Faiths and Cultures and Ageing, Disability and Spirituality and the author of Spiritual Growth and Care in the Fourth Age of Life and The Spiritual Dimension of Ageing, all published by JKP.

• Preface. Introduction: About growing older, dying and death. 1. Grief and loss: A part of life. 2. Fear of dying. 3. The final life career: Is this only a time of waiting for death? Or is there something more? 4. Acceptance that death will come. 5. Pain, distress and suffering. 6. Prayer. 7. Responding to meaning: symbol and ritual. 8. Transcendence in the process of death and dying. 9. Healing of relationships. 10. Intimacy and dying. 11. Dementia and dying. 12. Ethical and moral issues in death and dying. 13. The final days and hours of the journey. 14. Learning to live without my partner. Further reading. Appendices. Index.

(...) this book provides a gentle but emotive introduction into preparing for the final journey of life.